Open-government advocates say Illinois would be better off with an existing but flawed Freedom of Information Act than with a revised law released by House Democrats late Tuesday, just one minute before midnight and less than two weeks before the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn.

Rather than making records more accessible, officials with the Illinois Press Association say the provisions put forth by legislative leaders would make it easier for government officials to delay and ultimately keep some records secret.

“This would just open up a whole new range of litigation,” said Beth Bennett, IPA director of government relations.

Don Craven, acting director of the IPA, had praised a re-write crafted by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and delivered to legislative leaders last week. But changes e-mailed to the IPA Tuesday night will likely cause the press association to formally oppose the bill, he said.

“Only in Illinois would this be defined as reform and transparency,” Craven said. “I’ll take what we’ve got.”

Representatives for House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and Gov. Pat Quinn, all of whom have billed themselves reformers, declined to discuss specifics.

“There have been discussions going on, and discussions are continuing,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for the House speaker. “I’m not sure I would even characterize them as changes.”

Brown dismissed any notion time is running out.

“Two weeks is about 14 lifetimes, pal,” he said.

Cara Smith, the attorney general’s deputy chief of staff who has led the office’s FOIA reform efforts, said she’s been told changes were made by staff for the House speaker and Senate president.

She said she’ll push to keep the original package together and predicted that members of the Illinois Reform Commission will also call for legislative leaders to back off.

“As of late Friday, we had consensus, in significant part, especially with the reform commission, which had come out with strong thoughts about the bill,” Smith said. “All of the groups that have been working on this will argue strongly for the points in the bill that were in the bill Friday.”

After nearly four hours on a conference call with legislative staff that ended shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, Smith said the changes aren’t necessarily final.

“The first minute of the phone call, the staff of the Senate and the House acknowledged that this is a draft,” Smith said. “… On some issues, the parties are much further apart than on others. The fact that we’re having these conversations tells us we’re going to continue to have them until the bill gets passed.”

Changes by legislative Democrats include:

* Elimination of criminal penalties to punish public officials who refuse to release records.

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* Increasing civil penalties to between $1,000 and $5,000. Under the package put forth by the attorney general, the maximum civil fine would have been $1,000.

* A blanket prohibition on releasing home addresses and license plate numbers.

* Allowing public officials to satisfy FOIA requests with paper records, and charging for each page, rather than providing information in electronic format.

* Stripping provisions that would bar government from claiming most exemptions to the law if FOIA requests aren’t addressed within five working days.

* Restoring language that states information in personnel files can be kept secret. The attorney general’s version didn’t include references to personnel files, but the Statehouse version adds medical files “or other similar files” to the list of files in which privacy must be considered before information can be released.

* Reducing the power of a proposed public access counselor who would be tasked with refereeing disputes over public records.

Government agencies in Illinois have often been reluctant to release any information contained in personnel files, and Craven said the inclusion of personnel files in the legislative re-write is troubling. He also said it isn’t clear what “other similar files” means.

Roger Huebner, general counsel for the Illinois Municipal League, which has historically opposed FOIA reform efforts backed by the IPA, said he hasn’t seen the revisions. But he said the municipal league opposes criminal penalties for withholding public records. It’s also not a good idea to release home addresses and phone numbers, he said.

The municipal league is also concerned about provisions for a public access counselor appointed by the attorney general, Huebner said.